Ideazon Zboard “FANG” - Ideazon Zboard “FANG”
Review

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The wrist rest is nice, but flimsily attached – be careful with it. The whole board is height adjustable and can be used by both left and right handed users. This would be great for our Deputy Editor, Benny, who is left handed. Because of the keyboard positioning, he tends to use the arrow keys instead of the all mighty WASD.

On a keyboard you would traditionally use the space bar for jump. On this, the jump is a small button on the right and left hand side of the device (hence being ambidextrous). This takes a little getting used to, but it actually works well. When your hand is resting on the device, it lays in a more natural position, instead of like a scrunched up claw. I’m certain that this will help with RSI issues (one of the many reasons I don’t play many games nowadays).

Aside from the oversized WASD keys, the rest are a little smaller than a normal keyboard and feel slightly strange. It takes some getting used to, but having everything in one area is useful and certainly makes choosing weapons easier. However, for many games, you want to have in-game conversations. What’s a game of Counter-Strike without saying “wtf, lag”. This would naturally involve moving hands over to your full keyboard, which depending on how much desk space you have, may be tucked away out of site.

At the top of the keyboard are multimedia controls, which didn’t work with Winamp, but I’m sure there are ways of coaxing this into operation.

”’Verdict”’

Did this keyboard enhance game play? Initially, no, but the more you get used to it – the less delay there is in pressing the keys as you don’t have to dart around the keyboard. But quite honestly, I don’t think that’s enough reason to buy it. If you have a notebook, this would be well suited and is small enough to fit in a notebook bag. If you suffer from RSI, it could also really help. After all you can’t put a price on your health. Well, actually, yes you can, it’s £39.99 (although Amazon has it for £29.99 at the moment).